Silence
by Wawa4me
Summary: Is there any meaning in Silence?


Mei was a small frail child, she love books and flowers, and mostly books about flowers. She was the first daughter of the one and only Sarutobi Hiruzen. She would smile as she ran around the garden and her mother watched over her, calmly telling her not to get her dress dirty when she knelt by a flower to look at it.

Biwako loved her daughter, but she worried for her too.

Sarutobi, once he returned home from a long mission, would always bring her a pressed flower or book. He would do anything for that beautiful smile that filled her face when she received her present. He went out of his way to make sure he'd have something for her. Little did he know the smile was because her Tou-chan was home, and she had missed him, the present was only an afterthought.

Sarutobi Hiruzen would watch her carefully anytime she went outside to play.

Mei took to gardening like a fish to water. By the time she was five she was working under her Okaa-sans tutelage to learn everything she could about gardening, she wanted to grow everything she could about plants. Her determination to learn and help plants grow shone in her young eyes anytime her mother looked into them. So she kept on teaching her daughter how to trim a bonsai and plant seeds.

The day Biwako found out she was pregnant again she cried. Both for her coming son and her growing daughter.

By the time Mei was seven she had a little brother running around in her garden, stomping over plants and wrecking the seeds she had sewed. Hiruzen would yell at Masahiko, telling the small boy he knew better than to destroy his sisters garden. But Mei would wave it off and the set to work on fixing it up again. Because the only thing she loved more than her garden, was her brother.

When Mei had her eighth birthday Sarutobi realized that his small daughter would never make it alone in the world they lived in. He realized he had to do everything he could to protect it.

Katsuo was unexpected but happily received. Mei had just started to teach a generally uninterested Masahiko about gardening, she knew he wasn't interested and only pretended to listen because he cared about her, but she loved his company.

Masahiko was six when he realized why his sister was so special.

Katsuo was different from Masahiko in every way, the two would squabble night and day, wearing out Sarutobi's team anytime they were put on babysitting duty. Jiraiya and Tsunade would spend all their time working as hard as they could while Orochimaru watched over Mei in her garden. He taught her about snakes when she discovered one roaming in the grass. She in turn would give him a pretty flower before they left, the best one she could find in the garden that day.

Orochimaru had no interest in getting involved.

When Mei turned thirteen her garden was a sight to behold. It spanned the entire backyard and neither of her parents had turned down any expense to help her. Hiruzen and Jiraiya brought home seeds and books, Tsunade would find rare materials to help plants grow and Orochimaru would occasionally bring a garden snake or an obscure book on the '_History of the Aerator sandals'._ Whatever the present it went to good use, and he garden expanded to the edges of Hiruzen property, spilling into the house and the front yard and even neighboring houses in the compound.

Katsuo did not understand his sister. She was stupid and cared little for much more than her garden, in his opinion. Still he never said anything about it lest he recieve another long talk from his parents. And he wouldn't dare say anything to Masahiko of he'd beat him to a pulp. Sometimes he thought it was because Masahiko loved his sister more than katsuo, other times he thought it was because he knew something Katsuo didn't.

Eventually both their father and their fathers old pupils returned home less and less. There was a war coming, and both Masahiko and Katsuo had started their training to become ninja years ago, Masahiko himself had made gennin a year ago, and he had come home less and less himself. Which left Katsuo to turn to the only person who wasn't busy left in their home. Mei.

At some point Mei had decided she'd left Katsuo come to her. She didn't know how to approach her youngest brother, and though she loved him more than anything she had long since realized he had no interest in her. So they day he opened the back door and stepped into her home her eyes sprung up from the tomato seeds and focused on the boy trying to pretend to be uninterested by the flowers and trees, and other various plants that covered his backyard. She felt her heart jump.

Katsuo approached slowly and sat beside her as she continued to garden. She turned to him, beckoning him to follow her as she weaved through plants to find a stunning shed, covered in flowers and bright green moss. She handed him a pair of gloves and set to work teaching him how to plant tomatoes, soon after how to handle a venus fly trap, protect your plants from harmful bugs without using harmful materials, laying down fresh soil, and by the time Biwako had returned home Katsuo was up a banana tree collecting the ripe ones to bring inside.

Biwako watched, crying silently. Katsuo had finally reached out to his sister, and she had pulled him in.

The year Asuma was born, Mei died. The year Mei died, Asuma was born.

Masahiko was born to fight. He was the top of his class in both Ninjutsu, and Taijutsu. With little effort he picked up Kenjutsu. His team worked like a machine during missions and like family during training. He was set up for success, the up and coming prodigy, standing firmly beside those he cared about and dreaming of protecting his home, his family, his brother, and his sister. He grew up fast, and he worked to survive. Everyday was one step closer to coming back home.

Katsuo didn't envy the idea of becoming a ninja, it wasn't boring but he quickly lost interest, fighting meant training and learning and strategizing and the list went on and on. So Hiruzen when medical ninjutsu came up he jumped at the chance. At the beginning it hadn't seemed so complicated, and with Tsunade to teach him he was sure to learn fast. And learn fast he did, but as he worked it became less and less about knowing, and more and more about helping. He strove to become the best, to heal his comrades, heal his friends and family, to heal his sister.

Asuma was very much his own person. He grew up lonely. No one was home and he was left to wonder about the huge garden that took up the backyard, it was slowly withering, no matter how much his mother, father, and brothers tried to keep it alive. It seemed important to them. But at the end of the day he only went in there to discover its secrets, like why was there a big house to the side behind some large green things that had all sorts of strange items. Or why was there two large snakes he sometimes spotted in the trees of hiding near the stream. He found that he took to the garden like a fish to water. It came easily and it almost seemed like the garden taught him to help protect and nurture it. But it was always quiet, even the wind and birds did nothing to fill the quiet that spread over the garden.

Once Asuma asked Katsuo on a rare day home why. Katsuo smiled and pulled his youngest brother into his arms.

"Little brother, I once knew a person who said everything without saying anything."

"But how? If you can speak why don't you?"

"She couldn't speak Asuma, but she didn't have to."

"Why not?"

"Do you love the garden?"

Asuma considered it a moment. "Yes."

"Do you have to tell the Garden you love it for it to grow for you?"

"N-No."

Katsuo smiled.


End file.
